Glabrous shrub, 2-3 m tall; branches slender, usually widely branched. Petioles 4-10 mm long (usually ca 5 mm); blades mostly lanceolate, gradually long-acuminate, somewhat falcate, subequilateral at base, one side slightly shorter and acute, the longer side obtuse to rounded, the blades 6-16 cm long, 2-4.7 cm wide, the major lateral veins in 6-8 pairs, to all but perhaps apical fourth of blade, strongly ascending. Spikes erect, 5-8 cm long, 2-3 mm wide in fruit; peduncles ca 5 mm long; bracts rhombic or rounded, fringed. Fruits glabrous, obtusely 3-sided, slightly beaked; stigma single, round, sessile.Croat 8069, Tyson 4203. Occasional, in the forest. Flowering mostly in the dry and early rainy seasons. The fruits mature in the rainy season, mostly from June to September. Leaves are similar in shape to P. aequale, but may be distinguished by having the major lateral veins extending into at least three-fourths of the blade. The leaves of this species resemble those of P. darienense, but that species is distinguished by having cupulate, glabrous floral bracts.